Review: Leveraxe Vipukirves 2

WiredInnovative design that'll turn the heads of your lumberjack friends. Makes splitting hardwoods significantly easier than a traditional maul. Light axe doesn't require a lot of force, lessening chances of back or muscle strain. Unique approach to splitting wood allows you to take on logs of any size, splitting from the outside in. Ten-year warranty.

TiredPrior experience splitting wood will increase the learning curve on these guys. The pretty designs are pretty expensive: One axe will set you back somewhere between $250 and $300 depending on which model you choose.

Review: Leveraxe Vipukirves 2

WiredInnovative design that'll turn the heads of your lumberjack friends. Makes splitting hardwoods significantly easier than a traditional maul. Light axe doesn't require a lot of force, lessening chances of back or muscle strain. Unique approach to splitting wood allows you to take on logs of any size, splitting from the outside in. Ten-year warranty.

TiredPrior experience splitting wood will increase the learning curve on these guys. The pretty designs are pretty expensive: One axe will set you back somewhere between $250 and $300 depending on which model you choose.

If your trusty old wood-splitter just hasn't been cutting it lately, give Heikki Kärnä's invention a try. The now-retired Finnish air controller's cleverly simple wood-chopping device is called the Vipukirves 2. Technically, it's just an axe, though it probably doesn't look like any axe you've seen before. That wonky, cherry-red axe head is not only bizarrely shaped, but the unconventional design gives it the power to tear a log a new one. Many new ones, in fact.

Here's how it works. After the downswing and just after the blade pierces through the wood fibers, the counterweight on the right side of the head forces the axe to fall sideways. This creates a prying force that splits the fibers of the wood apart. Unlike a regular axe, you don't need to jam the wedge of the axe head into the cut you've just made, and keep swinging in the same spot to wedge the pieces of wood apart. You just turn the handle a little and the head applies enough lever force to break the log apart easily. Compared to a traditional axe, it requires far less raw force to split wood. And of course, fewer bone-shaking, sweat-soaked hours spent prepping your fire fuel.

Kärnä developed the first Vipukirves axe years ago, and he sells both it and the updated Vipukirves 2 design through his company, Leveraxe. The popularity of his axes exploded once English-speaking bloggers began posting YouTube videos of a Vipukirves-wielding Kärnä blowing through hardwood rounds, splitting them into three-inch pieces in mere seconds.

The two Leveraxes: The original Vipukirves on the bottom, and the Vipukirves 2 on the top.

Ariel Zambelich

The Leveraxe folks sent me both one of its original Vipukirves axes and the new Vipukirves 2 design to test. If you consider yourself an axe man, I can tell you that these tools should be fixtures in your arsenal for reasons beyond their efficiency. The Vipukirves 2 in particular is light considering the job it does. Traditional mauls weigh anywhere from four pounds up to a colossal 12 pounds. Typically, the heavier the maul, the better they are at splitting. The problem is that the heavier they are, the harder they are to swing. The svelte Vipukirves 2, which I preferred, weighs less than the original Leveraxe design. It's just a little over four and a half pounds, so it swings easily.

And because the device never wedges itself all the way through the log, there's little risk of hitting your shins or toes. Made of a beautiful birch, the handle absorbs shock and doesn't get slippery when wet like some plastic handles.

One snag (besides its high price tag) is the learning curve. People who have previously used a regular axe will have a hard time altering their big-swinging ways. In order for the axe head to work properly, it needs to be able to twist. At the end of the downswing, you have to loosen your grip on the handle. If you can manage to loosen your grip on a sharp metal object while it's hurtling through the air, it'll be smooth sailing.

For extra efficiency, the company recommends creating the ideal setup for chopping. This includes a chopping block (a larger log), a tire, and a couple of screws. (Just like you'll see in Kärnä's videos.) This setup isn't necessary for splitting logs, but the purpose of the tire is to keep the small pieces of wood gathered inside, thus reducing the time and effort spent picking up pieces that flew away, and repositioning the log you're splitting once you're ready to make another cut.

The Vipukirves works as promised, and did a great job of busting through the different California hardwoods I tried with it. It most definitely saves one the backaches and muscle soreness experienced when equal time is spent chopping wood the old fashioned way. So if you've got the money (around $300) and a lot of wood to break apart to get you through the winter, I recommend you give this funny-looking Finnish woodchuck a swing.